A Different Destiny
by Evanjaleene
Summary: On further adventures, the Pearl picks up a cook, Riana, and her she invites her friend Melody, and her friends Will and Elizabeth, to take a vacation to the sea with them, fun, until Anna Maria is kidnapped! Lil romance, but no Mary-Sues, really!
1. Default Chapter

Hey all! This is my first PotC fic, though some of you may know me from my GWing fic A Reason To Change. Anywho, sorry if Jack ever seems OOC, but at his age you'd be different too, maybe thinking of getting a more permanent girlfriend and so. I have 8 chapters of this done on paper, I'll try to get it all posted ASAP. Enjoy!  
  
Parings: So far none excepting the engaged Will and Elizabeth, but you'll see in the future what the parings change to and/or become. Rating: PG for swearing and battle scenes Summary: Riana is a cook on the Black Pearl and visits Port Royale. She meets Will, friend of her friend Melody, who meets Jack, and all seems to be well for the little trip to sea until Riana falls for William-engaged to Elizabeth-Melody thinks she's falling for Jack, and cursed sailors take Anna Maria.  
  
A Different Destiny Chap. 1 Of a Lady's Return from the Sea  
  
"Jack, I can ru-un f-for myself, you know," Riana said as Jack ran as fast as he could over the rocky path. He had his arm around her chest half carrying her. Her legs flew out behind her and she ran on her toes, bouncing with his every movement. "You're squashing my chest."  
  
" 'Aven't got time for your short legs, luv," Jack panted. "Sorry," he added as an afterthought.  
  
Shots rang out around their heads. "Sparrow! You'll be dead when I catch you!" Garrett Smith screamed from his house, holding his daughter back by the ruffles of her half undone dress.  
  
"Bye, love!" the blonde wench cried after him.  
  
"Why'd ya have to try and tumble her anyway?" Riana grumbled as Jack slowed, reaching the dock. The Black Pearl was off a distance behind some rocks.  
  
"Why da ya think, luv? But no more governor's daughters for me, I shoulda learned me lesson the first time."  
  
"Aye," Riana grumbled. Jack set her down.  
  
They boarded the Pearl a while later and Riana went to Anna Maria.  
  
"Ah, missy, we're behind," the taller black girl said. She wasn't much of a cook, but was trying to help get dinner ready for the crew in Riana's absence.  
  
Riana had been a good learner and was a good cook out of necessity. She's lost her only family, her poor father, to illness years ago. Good thing she had no one else, for ever since her "short visit" to her friend Anna Maria she's been part of the crew, thanks to neither of them noticing they'd left dock the night she came up.  
  
"Well, lets' see what we have to do," she said, rubbing her hands together and hearing Jack give orders to start off to Port Royale.  
  
To visit her friend, she'd go back home.  
  
********  
  
Melody sighed, dusting off a book cover with a great puff of breath. 'Twas a shame not many people read books-oh, they *bought* books, to be sure. The upper class was in competition to have the most of everything. But few could hold a real in depth conversation; she'd seen that when they'd come into her bookshop, A Place of Fancy.  
  
"Why, Melody Michelle, working so early?" teased Scarlet Marie O'Hairra, who always called Melody by her first and middle name on the first sighting of the day.  
  
Melody brushed a strand of mahogany-brown hair over her ear and offered a smile. "Early to work, early to leave," she said.  
  
Scarlet, a blonde who hated her fancy-smancy name and went by Marie instead, said, "Well, *that's* true enough. But dear, I must bring sad new. Well, I *hope* it's sad news; I'd be devastated if you found it good, surely in good taste you simple couldn't-"  
  
"Marie," Melody interrupted, "what is it you wish to say?"  
  
Ordinarily easily offended, Marie smiled to her good friend. "Dearest, I'll be gone for a good two months-I *do* hope they are good-in paris, to mingle with good society.  
  
"And we don't have that here?" Melody chuckled.  
  
Marie wrinkled her nose most becomingly, as befitting a socialite princess. "Oh, no, dear. Not like they have in Paris. I *do* hope I'll land a rich husband who isn't *very* old."  
  
Marie discussed her plans with Melody for a while, and then left for morning tea with other friends. Melody was just getting back to inventory when her shop door's bell rang, signaling another guest. It was Mr. Pritt, the mailman.  
  
"Here you are, Miss Arrowin. Your mail."  
  
"Thank you, Mr. Pritt."  
  
Tearing open the first envelope, she read,  
  
Mel, I'm coming to see ya soon! By this Monday I will, so look for me by morn! ~Riana  
  
*knock knock knock*  
  
~End chap.~ 


	2. Chap 2 Of Plans for Adventure

A Different Destiny Chap. 2 Of Plans for Adventure  
  
Melody rushed over to the door, breathless with hope. "Yes?" she gasped, flinging the door open.  
  
Will Turner glanced uncertainly down at her, his warm brown eyes like coffee sweetened with cream and turned a softer brown from the original black.  
  
Melody blinked. Hmm. Perhaps she was hungry. "Yes?" she said again, more calmly this time.  
  
"Is Elizabeth here? She had errand here, has she stopped by yet?"  
  
"Oh. No, sorry. She has not been here yet. Would you like to come in and wait?"  
  
Will's brows drew together and he frowned a moment in thought, then nodded. "Yes, I shall."  
  
Melody stepped aside to let him in, suddenly concious of her simple layered white dress, grayed with dust. Flushing, she showed Will to a seat at a warm-toned old oak table and bid him wait a moment. She went into a back room and quickly changed into a clean spare dress.  
  
'I should never do inventory in my shop clothes,' she thought, tugging the one layer cotton dress on. The raspbery tinted cloth with a gold-colored rope belt had been rather expensive for her earnings--it was the dye that got her--but she *did* have to look nice as she was selling her hcarm as much as her books to make a living. And the square neckline and full skirt really *did* suit her.  
  
"So sorry for the wait, Will." She brushed her hair back again, but it fell back part-way over her face anyway. She leaned against the counter and smiled at him, for lack of anything else to do. He smiled back, apparently also at a loss for words, then got up and examined a book by the entrance of the shop.  
  
"A Way to Heaven," he mused. "Good book." He tapped it against his palm, then put it back. "Melody--"  
  
RIIING! The bell sounded and the door flew open.  
  
"Mel--ah--oh!" Riana burst in, saw Will, tried to skid to a stop with her hands out but kept going.  
  
Will, with quick reflexes born of long hours of sword play, grabbed her by the arms as she tripped over her own feet and swung towards a bookshelf.  
  
"No! The books!" Melody cried. She's spent hours organizing!  
  
"Aiya!" Riana shrieked.  
  
Will yanked her towards him and staggered back as he took her weight and momentum, leaned precariously back over a table by more shelves, then managed to center his weight.  
  
Dead silence fell over them.  
  
Riana unburied her face from Will's chest after a moment, blinked, and looked up at him. "I'm...I'm rather clumsy, and I'm used to it, but thank you for, um, catching me," she said, startled into automatically speaking correctly.  
  
Melody let out her breath in a whoosh. "Well, thank God I don't have to re-organize."  
  
Both Riana and Will laughed, breaking the tension. Will unclenched his death grip and Riana smoothed out the rumples in her sleeves. Melody took a closer look at her dress.  
  
"Silk? However did you afford it?" she asked incredulously.  
  
Riana grinned and bounded over to hug her. "Well, nah, couldn't I? I make a good keep as cook aboard the Pearl." Her speech returned to it's normal sunny, grammatically incorrect patterns.  
  
"The Pearl? The Black Pearl? Is Jack intown?" Will asked, a bit of familiar excitement creeping into his voice.  
  
Riana turned to him with surprise. "You'd be Will Turner, wouldn't ya? Yes, Jack's here, a 'course. We're here because I wanted to convince Mel ta visit me at sea for a while. Oh!" She jumped and clapped her hands. "Will, come with us! You and Elizabeth if she will. Make it a vacation."  
  
"I don't know--"  
  
"Wait, wait, wait!" Melody interrupted. "The Black Pearl?! Ri, you've turned pirate!"  
  
"Well, techni-cally...no. I only cook." Riana grinned. Then she took Melody's hand, tugging it. "Ah, Mel. Come on. What are you leaving you'll miss terribly inna few short days?"  
  
It was true. Marie had gone, and if Will and Elizabeth went, all of Melody's close friends would be gone. Why not? "All right," she said faintly. A pirate ship. A *pirate* ship. If her mama didn't spin in her grave, the world wasn't right.  
  
"William?" called Elizabeth from the doorway in faint suprise. "What are you doing here?" She held some money in her hands, which Melody strode forth to recieve.  
  
"Thank you for dropping off Elnor's payment, he was so upset of being short a few shilings when he left for London. He felt it a black mark on his honor."  
  
"Yes," Elizabeth said distractedly. "Will?"  
  
Will smiled broadly. "Elizabeth, we're taking a vacation on the Black Pearl!"  
  
~End chap.~ 


	3. Chap 3 Of Elizabeth's Disapproval

Things are slow now, I know. But just be patient! It will pick up in chapter six, but the previous chapters are important to character/plot developement. And...why is it "hanged" and not "hung?" Somebody tell me that...  
  
A Different Destiny Ch. 3 Of Elizabeth's Disapproval  
  
"Will!" said Elizabeth, shocked. "What do you mean? We can't just go away--and to a pirate ship! My father would never forgive me."  
  
An incomprehensible look crossed Wil's face. "Elizabeth. A visit to an old freind. Is it no different than before?"  
  
Elizabeth gaped at him, and shook her head. "Will, it is. We did what we had to do that time, but we an't test our luck when the punishment is so great--greater--now. If I were to be hanged as a traitor--If I was caught in Jack's company--my father would die of heartbreak. And if *you* were hanged...oh, Will, I don't know what I'd do."  
  
Will's brows drew together. "You are saying it was fine to associate with pirates when your life was in danger, but not now? Elizabeth, he *saved* your life, surely as much as I did."  
  
Elizabeth gazed at him, face unreadable, her steady breath loud in the otherwise silent room. "Will, I cannot go. *We* cannot."  
  
Will raised his head. "I am going, Elizabeth, for a few days at least. He is a good man. As was my father."  
  
Elizabeth smiled sadly. "You do have pirate's blood in your veins."  
  
Will turned away, and Riana saw a look of rage, then confusion on his face. She knew his history from Jack, and could guess the problem; he knew pirates could be good men--knew it personally. But he himself was *not* a pirate--soemthing Elizabeth could not seem to grasp after the adventure. Taking a few chances to what he knew was right in his heart did not make him a pirate, whatever his late father's lifestyle had been.  
  
Will took a deep breath, and blew it out as his eyes searched the corners of the bookshop ceiling, for what Riana didn't know. He turned back to Elizabeth. His nod was painfully polite. "Tell them I've gone to see an old friend."  
  
She nodded back. "I will."  
  
Will hesitated, the went to her and took her hands in his own. He searched her face and something passed between them--something sad--and they pulled away.   
  
Riana had the sense of reality altering in some small but vastly important way when they looked at each other like that. But she shook off the feeling and brought a sunny smiled out. "Well, then, we'llsee ya in some time, Elizabeth. Don't be worryin' we'll look after Will, we will. We will, Will, hehe," she added to herself, laughing a little.  
  
Elizabeth smiled wanly. "I'm sure...you'll be fine. Yes. Well. See you soon...? then, my dear Will." Her voice was slightly questioning.  
  
Will smiled gently. He glanced back at Melody--who's been silently staying out of the conversation--and at Riana. "I will have to grab a bag. Where will we meet?"  
  
"The old dock, on the other side of the island," Riana said instantly.  
  
Will nodded, and left.  
  
The old dock, where settlers had first landed on the island, was now in disuse and decay, except for a few boarded walks used for inconspicuous comings and goings. It suited their purpose fine.  
  
Lake Island, who's inland lake had dried up many years ago, was chiefly known for Port Royale, and the fine crew of the British Navy it housed. But its soil was fertile, and pearls could now and then be found in the clams of its waters. It was quite nice for being such a small place. Nice meaning respectable; Tortuga was still much *nicer* for some men.  
  
Riana bid Elizabeth farewell and waited as Melody packed a bag and closed the shop, taking all her earning with her.  
  
"I don't want to be robbed, and I won't be in debt to a pirate," she said.  
  
Riana smiled. "Ready? Aye? Well, let's go!"  
  
~End chap.~  
  
Sorry not a lot has happened yet, but I had to add that scene in. If they left with Will and Elizabeth presumably all fine and dandy, later chapters wouldn't make sense. And I got to describe the island a little. 


	4. Chap 4 Of New Faces and Old Friends

Sorry this is so short...  
  
A Different Destiny Ch. 4 Of New Faces and Old Friends  
  
"Welcome ta excitement, have ya missed it?" Riana asked as they watched the Black Pearl loom up in the darkness of the night like a moving mountain on the water. More time had passed than Melody would have expected for it to be so dark, but then it was getting close to winter now. It wasn't much colder, but the daylight was shortening.  
  
"How did you come to be in Jack's crew?" Will asked.  
  
"Oh, I'm not so much part a his crew as a woman who just happens ta be aboard. I cook to earn me keep--did I say 'me', I meant my--really because I'm bored. I'm adoptin' Jack's speech now, ain't I? Aiya! And I spoke so good before. I mean well."  
  
"Ah...okay," Will said, looking a bit confused by the blurble he'd recieved in response to his query. Melody roled he eys but smiled. Then narrowed them at the water. "Ri, is that part of Jack's crew?" she asked of a boat seemingly rowed all by itself. As it came closer she saw a dark-skinned girl and a very tanned man--Jack Sparrow himself.   
  
Never to be cheated out of his admittedly dangerous "fun," he'd come to meet them himself with only one crew member, as if he was tempting fate.  
  
"Look, Jack! Dear William has returned!" Riana called, jumping and clappig her hands. She ran over to the small boat as it came close to the boardwalk over the gently churning water.  
  
Jack grinned and grabbed her by the waist to bring her down into the bobbing ship. "That's so, luv? Well. Ya're all in one piece still, good and well. Dear William! You actually *are* here!"  
  
"Aye, Jack," Will grinned. He helped Melody down and went in himself.  
  
" 'Ello, Anna Maria!" Riana chirped as Jack and Will exchanged a hearty hug of welcome.  
  
"Welcome back, little missy," Anna Maria returned. "And is this your 'lovely Melody?'"  
  
Melody raised an eyebrow at hearing Anna Maria using Riana's favorite nick-name for her. She dipped her head in greeting. "I am, miss."  
  
"Anna Maria," she said by way of introduction, nodding politely.  
  
They set off for the Pearl.  
  
~End Chap.~  
  
Hey, I promise to get more chapters up soon to make up for this one's shortness, but please review!!!! 


	5. Chap5 Of Blushing Maidens

Huy guys, sorry if Jack seems a little ooc. But at his age, wouldn't you be a lil different too? Maybe thinking if getting a more permanent girlfriend...?  
  
A Different Destiny Chap. 5 Of Blushing Maidens  
  
"Oh, how nice ta have ye here! Immean you. Oh, Mel, it'll be more fun than anything!" Riana was practically galloping around the deck in excitement. She got that way sometimes.  
  
'Not changed a bit,' Melody thought with a smile.  
  
"Now, luv, you'll have the British Navy on us ere we leave dock if ya don't quite down," Jack said in gentle reprimand. He was always unusually kind to Riana, and Melody had suspected at first that he was in love with her. Then she decided he thought of her as an excitable child, and so was never cruel with his words to her as he could be with the crew.  
  
"Aye," Riana hugged him around the waist. "Sorry." Jack hugged her back with one arm while snapping at the crew with the hand not on her waist.  
  
"Get to it, ya scurvy dogs. We'll never be at sea at this rate."  
  
****************  
  
Melody set up her bag in the small room she was to cal lhome for the next fourteen days. The ship would make a short trip to open seas and stop on what the crew called Pearl Island--had Jack ever held a real, official title? They called him the Govenor of Pearl Island to his back--where they said they'd visited ever since "the Grand Adventure'd brought the lovely place to our attention."  
  
Unpacking, she had just slipped into her nightgown--the only bit of silk she owned--when there came a knock on the door. She hastily grabbed ger black wool robe. "Yes?"  
  
Anna Maria opened the door and pooped her head in. "Melody? To bed so soon? We're having a late dinner."  
  
A very late dinner. And she'd been up a long time. But her stomach rumbled. "Ah, well, I *am* hungry. I'll be done in a minute--uh, to where?"  
  
"The large room ya passed on yer way down here. We call it the dining room, but I sp'ect it was used as a captain's quarters by Barbossa. Not much in it but a big bed Jack had burned, as he didn't need much?"  
  
"Oh?"  
  
Anna Maria shrugged. "He took another room as his quarters and we put some long tables in there so's the crew has a place to eat and gather."  
  
"All right. Just let me change back into my clothes."  
  
Melody put her dress and belt back on and took out the braid she always wore to bed to keep her hair from getting overly tangled. It fell in soft tousled waves and she set down the brush. No need to look overly neat. She was dining with pirates, after all. So she went out of her room and followed the maze of halls.  
  
She was passing Jack's quarters right as he stapped out.  
  
"Ah! Miss--uh, what did ya say yer name was, luv? Never mind it, let me escort yer lovely self to the dining hall, ya look lost."  
  
Knwoing she looked no such thing, as she was not, she nonetheless accepted the captain's offer. "It's Melody Arrowin, captain. My name, that is."  
  
"Arrowin...fanciful name. Makes ya think of battle, don' know why. But maybe that's Riana's talk of faeries and mermaids and all manner of creatures affecting me. Puts things in me head."  
  
Melody laughed. "She *is* silly sometimes, but she says it's you who's affecting her, captain. She's adopting yout way of speaking."  
  
"That she is."Jack glanced down at her. "You look lovely, luv."  
  
Melody flushed and faltered in her step before regaining her composure. "And from the great captain himself, such a compliment! My thanks, sir."  
  
Jack smiled, his eyes serious on her. Another flush rose up her neck, but then they came into the dining room. "I'll be seeing you, Miss Arrowin," he ran a finger over the brim of his hat and tipped it slightly, half-mocking the gesture.  
  
Melody turned to see Riana handing Will a cup to pour his ale in. Their fingers brushed. Startled, Riana cropped hte cup, which, being only a few inches from the table, did not make much of a clatter. But Will's eyes flew up to hers, surprised, and she gave a, to Melody, falsely bright smile.  
  
"I *am* clumsy," she said. Turning, she bumped the side of the table and tipped forward. Will caught her, and she thanked him, then promptly tripped backward on a loose plank of wood onto her bottom, not at all cushined by the thin silk of her dress,  
  
Melody rolled her eyes, already forgetting the awkward moment with Jack. SHe walked over to her friend.  
  
"Ri, if we aren't hung by the Navy on our return, they'll be cheated out of the pleasure of it forever. Your manner will surely be the death of us, you graceless goose." But she helped Will help her friend up. She could only thank God Riana wasn't drunk.  
  
Riana's face was red, but she laughed. "Oh, surely. But it would be death on *my* terms then, not theirs. I would *so* hate to die by another's demands."  
  
Will shook his head and Melody laughed. Turning away for her own glass, she sipped sweet berry wine, feeling someone's eyes on her. She looked up.  
  
Jack was raising a cup--of rum, no doubt--to his lips, his eyes steady on her over the rim. He smiled at her as he put the cup back down, and Melody flushed, suddenly concious that this was one of ehr best dresses and it was *very* becoming on her.  
  
Confusion washed over her, like sea water over a ship. Was Jack interested in her?   
  
~End chap.~  
  
Battle starts next chapter! Hehe. 


	6. Note to Readers

Sorry!  
  
I've been going through a lot of personal sh*t, and it's taken up my time. I don't even have time for my homework--I've had to ask for extensions--much less any fics right now. I have updates to several of my fics but haven't been able to type them up.  
  
See, I've moved twice in three times in two weeks. Moved outta my parents' house because of, how should I put it, irreconcilable differences? Then into a friends', it didn't work out, and into another friends'. It's crazy right now. Please understand, I wanna write all my fics! Just need more time, to get settled.  
  
Thanks!  
  
~Evanjaleene 


	7. Chapter 7

I finally found the password to this account and the email account, so if any of you want to see more of this please let me know and I will begin to update again! 


	8. Ok then, updating soon!

All right! I'll get to work on a new chapter then! Your patience is appreciated. smiles 


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